Team Sullivan: JJ & Jayla Update

Time for an update on the munchkins!

Now that the weather is warming up JJ is starting to re-discover the spring and summertime joys of being outdoors! He LOVES to help me water the flowers, shrubs and trees around the house….he took a little bit of an interest in this last year, but now he wants to hold the hose all by himself. We also found this GREAT little beach and park area about 15 minutes from our house called Big Creek. They have this huge wooden park, walking trail, and beach spot. JJ is SO CURIOUS about the water and sand. Last year he would scream whenever he got sand on his toes, but this year he has discovered how much fun it is to play in the sand, and dip his toes in the water. One of the things I will always remember from growing up in San Diego is how much fun it was to make sand castles and play on the shore. I hope JJ will have memories of this too, even if it’s only a little Iowa beach with a mid-western glimpse of what the ocean is like. We have started traveling each weekend to tournaments with Jake’s teams, and one big thing that I notice different from last year is that JJ is interacting much more with everyone. He has fun playing with the player’s little sisters and brothers, and also has made fast friends with a couple of the coaches in the program. One thing I know he will always remember is running around with Nyla who is Coach Seay’s daughter. JJ & Nyla had so much fun on our big trip to Tennessee two weekends ago. Those two get the giggles about every 5 minutes. The best thing is that they could go all day without playing with a single toy. They just find random things to do in the gyms, or chase each other around. Every morning when we woke up in the hotel, the first thing out of JJ’s mouth was ‘Nyla come?’ Meaning, when will we get to see Nyla?!?! JJ has also really opened up to Nana Yaw and he is always wanting to know where he is. When we are at tournaments JJ has to find him on the court, or wherever he is sitting at in the gym. Then JJ will wave and wave at him, and yell his name until Nana Yaw sees him and smiles and gives a wave back. When we are at home JJ likes to ‘cook’ for Nana Yaw, especially apple pie. Nana Yaw always plays along and one night JJ had about a 15 minute conversation with Nana Yaw and it went non-stop. Jake asked Nana Yaw what they were talking about, and Nana Yaw said ‘I have no idea what he is saying!’ Sometimes neither do we!

Little Jayla is quite the chatterbox these days. She sounds like a little bird, just chitterin and chatterin all day long. Sometimes she will really get rolling and do all these crazy voice inflections like she is telling some amazing story. She can repeat quite a few words if you say them first. For ‘ni-night’ she says ‘ni-ni’, she can repeat ‘baby’ which sounds like ‘be-be’, and for ‘all done’ she says ‘nah-nuh’. When she sees JJ coming or when he comes out of his room in the morning she will squeal his name and she gets it right except for the J part she does a G sound. Jayla just loves JJ and he can make her laugh better than any of us. During JJ’s bathtime I usually put Jayla right up to the edge of the tub where she can stand and play. She squeals whenever he splashes her, and he starts this jumping game where he gets waves going and it gets Jayla laughing really hard everytime. This last month Jayla also learned how to ‘roll’ the ball back and forth, and she is now completely switched over to the sippy cup! Whoo Hoo! No more bottles! She gave me some attitude about the big switch for about 3 really hard days, but we stuck to it and now she is doing great with the sippy. Jayla has all 8 teeth almost fully in now (4 top 4 bottom). She enjoys cruising along the couch and figuring out every possible body maneuver she can do without actually having to crawl to get to a toy. Jayla is still a wonderful eater, in fact, I cannot think of one single thing that she won’t eat. I hope she keeps this up cause it makes mealtimes a lot less busy when I know she will eat whatever the rest of us are eating!

Enjoy the pictures! I had a cute video of them rolling the ball, but it wouldn't post for some reason, so I'll try again some other day.

Here we are on the big bus headed to a tournament.